Client side behavior self-determination

ABSTRACT

A Rules-Based Just-In-Time (RBJIT) content streaming engine collects information such as behavior, usage, movement, and preferences about a user, any groups that the user is associated with, and the set of all users in general. Based on this information, the RBJIT may preferentially select multimedia content and content suggestions for user display, increasing the likelihood that the surfaced content will be of interest to a user. In this way, browsing time for a user on a device with a limited form factor is reduced and network bandwidth is conserved by not surfacing content that the user ultimately will not view.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/749,866, filed on Jan. 22, 2020, entitled “Rules-BasedJust-In-Time Mobile Content Service,” which claims benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/802,130, filed on Feb. 6, 2019,entitled “Rules-Based Just-In-Time Mobile Content,” which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Mobile users demand multimedia streaming. Today, “multimedia streaming”often refers to retrieving and rendering video and audio from a datastore, commonly via the internet. While some refer to “multimedia data”as content from multiple forms of media including text, still images,video, and audio, the term is sometimes used synonymously with video andaudio content, and perhaps to a lesser extent, still images. One of thereasons for this association is that still images, music, podcasts, andvideo (with audio) make heavy use of computing, computer-readablememory, and network resources. As used throughout this description,“multimedia” is not restricted to video and audio content.

Streaming multimedia that changes over time (such as video and audio)over a network particularly creates technical issues in computing,computer-readable memory, and network resource management, to name afew. For instance, the quality of multimedia content is a function ofnetwork bandwidth. Higher resolution multimedia content generally makesuse of more space, memory, and/or bandwidth than lower resolutionmultimedia content. For example, a data frame for a 4K video is muchlarger than that of a 720i image. However, if the network struggles toaccommodate multimedia data frames with consistent timing, the userexperience during playback of the multimedia content while streaming maynot be acceptable.

Multimedia streaming may be performed, e.g., on set-top boxes andpersonal computers, which render multimedia content on relatively largeform factors and which have access to relatively large amounts ofcomputing resources, computer-readable memory, bandwidth, and power.These may be used to implement certain technical solutions to ensuresmooth and timely renderings of multimedia at high resolutions,incorporating an assumption that the large-form-factor device will beconnected to a persistent source of power and unlimited network (e.g.,Internet) source of multimedia content, such that pre-loading multimediacontent (especially partial files on demand (“data on demand”)) on thedevice may not be significant enough to consider. However, mobiledevices, which have relatively smaller form factors and less computingresources, computer-readable memory, bandwidth, and power are not insome instances able to make use of those solutions. Therefore, forsmall-form-factor devices, the benefits of data-on-demand solutions canbe significant enough to consider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system to implement rules-basedjust-in-time multimedia content servicing.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a mobile device on the client side.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an architecture diagram in the contextof a mobile platform for rules-based just-in-time multimedia contentservicing and for mobile application management.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the mobile device for surfacing multimedia content.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the mobile device for collecting usage and behavior data of theuser.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by a rules-based just-in-time engine for determining multimediacontent for sending to the mobile device.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an RAB scheme that may be implementedin a system for mobile application management.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the download manager for requesting a data asset for downloadand conducting an RAB in instances of server unavailability.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the scheduling manager for identifying a download server fordownloading a requested data asset.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the scheduling manager for responding to and/or modifying an RABfrom the mobile device.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an example process performed at least inpart by the download manager for managing an RAB on the mobile device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one or more embodiments, techniques are provided to implementrules-based just-in-time (RBJIT) multimedia content streaming in a “dataon demand” solution to overcome the above-noted constraints and otherconstraints to which mobile devices are particularly vulnerable formultimedia streaming. The disclosed techniques, while consideredparticularly advantageous in a mobile environment, nonetheless may beapplicable, in whole or in part, to some stationary user devices, andpotentially even those having large form factors. In some embodiments,an RBJIT engine (“RBJIT”) may collect from the mobile device informationabout a user, any groups that the user is associated with, and/or theset of all users in general. The RBJIT may preferentially select foruser display (“surfacing”) by the mobile device multimedia content andcontent suggestions based on this information, limiting payload responseto surface only multimedia content which is required or requested to beshown in the user interface, with the greater likelihood that thesurfaced multimedia content will be of interest to a user beingsubstantially increased. In this way, among other improvements, browsingtime for a user on a mobile device with a limited form factor isreduced, and network bandwidth is conserved by not surfacing multimediacontent that the user ultimately will not view. Furthermore, as theRBJIT collects an increasingly large amount of information, predictionsof user interest in multimedia content will continue to improve.

The RBJIT may make use of mobile-based applications, both to surfacemultimedia content and to collect user information. Managing andversioning mobile-based applications have their own challenges.Techniques to manage and version mobile-based applications are alsodisclosed herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 to implement rules-basedjust-in-time multimedia content servicing. In FIG. 1, a user 102 has amobile device 104. The mobile device 104 is configured to communicateover a telecommunications carrier network 106 which includes a corenetwork 108 of a mobile network operator (MNO). In some embodiments, thetelecommunications carrier network is a cellular network and the MNO isa cellular provider. Mobile devices 104 on a cellular network such asthe telecommunications carrier network 106 connect via cellular antennassuch as antennas 110 a and 110 b over radio via a cellular air interfaceto a core network 108 of a mobile network operator (MNO).

In some embodiments, the antennas 110 a and 110 b may feed to one ormore base stations 112 a and 112 b, which then may access the corenetwork 108 over a wired connection known as a backhaul. The backhaul isoften comprised of fiber optic communications cables, although nolimitation should be inferred. A portion of the telecommunicationscarrier network 106 that includes the antennas, cell towers, and basestations may transfer signals from the mobile device 104 to the corenetwork 108, i.e. providing access to the core network 108. Therefore,this portion of the telecommunications carrier network 106 is sometimescalled the access network.

In 4G and later embodiments, the core network 108 may include an IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS) core 114. The IMS core 114 may be accessedvia one or more gateways (two gateways 116 a and 116 b are shown by wayof example) and related components that are tasked with providingconnectivity between the telecommunications carrier network 106 andmobile devices such as the mobile device 104, by acting as a point ofentry and exit for data traffic. In turn, the IMS core 114 may providethe user devices with data access to external packet data networks 118,such as the networks of other telecommunications carrier networks or theInternet.

The IMS core 114 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function(P-CSCF) 120 or an equivalent function. The P-CSCF 120 may routeincoming Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages to an IMS registrarserver. The P-CSCF 120 may also safeguard the security of the IMS core114 by handling Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) for communicationsthat are exchanged with mobile devices. In some alternative instances,instead of SIP sessions, the P-CSCF 120 may handle Remote AuthenticationDial-In User Service (RADIUS) sessions. The P-CSCF 120 may interact withan Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 122 and a Serving CSCF (S-CSCF) 124. Insome instances, the I-CSCF 122 may be an inbound SIP proxy server of theIMS core 114. During IMS registration of the mobile device 104, theI-CSCF 122 may query a home subscriber server (HSS) to designate anS-CSCF 124 to service the mobile device 104. The I-CSCF 122 may befurther responsible for routing incoming IMS session requests andterminating IMS sessions requests.

The core network 108 also may include one or more application servers,including without limitation an enterprise information technology (EIT)server 126, to implement application servers, perform back endprocessing for network connectivity for the MNO (including accessing ofmultimedia in some embodiments), and host an RBJIT 128 in the corenetwork 106 in some embodiments. The core network 108 may additionallyprovide a staging function in order to assist with software updates, aswill be discussed in further detail below. The staging function may behosted on the EIT server 126 itself, or the staging function may beprovided on its own separate server (e.g. a staging server). In variousembodiments the staging function may provide one or more staginglocations comprising computer storage for receiving and transmittingsoftware updates.

The core network 108 is the portion of the telecommunications carriernetwork 106 where routing, billing, policy implementation and othercommunications services may be implemented by, for example, a Policy andCharging Rules Function (PCRF) or another equivalent rules engine and/orbilling function, which may be hosted on the EIT server 126 in someembodiments. For example, a billing function may enable thetelecommunications carrier network 106 to monitor services, such asdata, voice, text, etc., that are used by subscribers of thetelecommunications carrier network 106 and charge the subscribers and/orother parties in real-time based on service usage. In variousembodiments, the billing function may be an Online Charging System (OCS)or another equivalent core network component of the telecommunicationscarrier network 106.

In some embodiments, the RBJIT 128 interfaces via the network 118 withone or more multimedia services (in FIG. 1, two multimedia services 130a and 130 b are shown by way of example). The multimedia services 130 aand 130 b may have their own respective data stores 132 a and 132 b ofmultimedia content. The multimedia services 130 a and 130 b may becommercial services each with their own independent billing system andsubscription account system with the user 102. Accordingly, themultimedia services 130 a and 130 b may have their own surfacingalgorithms. In at least some embodiments, surfacing and analysis offirst- and third-party content may support A/B testing related to bothnew and existing content. While the RBJIT 128 may collect informationfrom the multimedia services 130 a and 130 b, the operation of the RBJIT128 may be independent of the multimedia services 130 a and 130 b.Therefore, the RBJIT 128 may implement its data on demand technique tosurface only a limited amount of required data supplied by themultimedia services 130 a and 130 b as well.

In some embodiments, the RBJIT 128 also receives usage and behavior datafor the user 102 via the mobile device 104. Functionality for elementsof a cellular network and user equipment for the RBJIT service describedherein, as well as mobile application management, are generally hostedon computing devices. FIG. 2 shows an example of the mobile device 104on the client side and the EIT server on the server side.

Exemplary mobile devices 104 include without limitation smaller laptops,embedded devices, tablet computers, and smartphones which haverelatively smaller form factors than larger devices such as largerlaptops, smart televisions, and personal computer monitors (includingall-in-ones). Thus, there may be limited screen space for viewingcontent, browsing, and configuring the mobile device 104.

The mobile device 104 may have a communication interface 202, a userinterface 204, one or more processors 206, and a computer readablememory 208. The communication interface 202 may be a network interfacecard supporting Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi and/or any number of otherphysical and/or datalink protocols. Generally, the network will includea cellular network. Accordingly, the communication interface 202 willinclude a cellular radio and radio access software layer. The userinterface 204 may enable a user to provide input and receive output fromthe mobile device 104, including for example providing one or more inputto initiate device activation. The user interface 204 may include a dataoutput device (e.g., visual display, audio speakers) and one or moredata input devices. The data input devices may include, but are notlimited to, combinations of one or more of touch screens, physicalbuttons, cameras, fingerprint readers, keypads, keyboards, mousedevices, microphones, speech recognition packages, and any othersuitable devices or other electronic/software selection methods. The oneor more processors 206 may comprise a central processing unit and/or adedicated controller such as a microcontroller.

The computer-readable memory 208 may be any computer-readable mediawhich may store an operating system 210 and one or more applications212. The operating system 210 and applications 212 may be comprised ofsoftware components. In general, a software component is a set ofcomputer-executable instructions stored together as a discrete whole.Examples of software components include binary executables such asstatic libraries, dynamically linked libraries, and executable programs.Other examples of software components include interpreted executablesthat are executed on a run time such as servlets, applets, p-Codebinaries, and Java binaries. Software components may run in kernel modeand/or user mode.

Computer-readable media includes at least computer storage media andcommunications media. Computer storage media includes volatile andnon-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in anymethod or technology for storage of information such as computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to storeinformation for access by a computing device. Communication media mayembody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, orother transmission mechanisms. As defined herein, computer storage mediadoes not include communication media.

The mobile device 104 may also include a rendering engine 213 and otherdevice hardware 214. The rendering engine 213 may provide desirable“tuning” of the streaming content, for example by up-cycling the streamor downgrading image quality, to achieve or maintain a smoother userexperience. The device hardware 214 may include other hardware that istypically located in a mobile telecommunication device. For example, thedevice hardware 214 may include signal converters, antennas, hardwaredecoders and encoders, graphic processors, a Universal IntegratedCircuit Card (UICC) slot (e.g., SIM slot), I/O devices, and/or the likethat enable the mobile device 104 to execute applications and providetelecommunication and data communication functions.

The mobile device 104 may have a wide range of means of informationcollection. Visual media capture may be in the form of one or morecameras capable of capturing still images and/or video. Audio mediacapture may be in the form of one or more microphones or transducers.Non-multimedia sensors include without limitation proximity sensors (anexample of which may determine a proximity of the computing device 104to a surface such as a user's head), GPS sensors, ambient light sensors,one or more accelerometers, a compass, one or more gyroscopes, andbacklight illuminated sensors.

A server is any computing device that may participate in a network andhost a service accessible by client computers 104. The network may be,without limitation, a local area network (“LAN”), a virtual privatenetwork (“VPN”), a cellular network, or the Internet. A server such asthe EIT server 126 may be analogous to the mobile device 104 in manyrespects. Specifically, it may have one or more of a communicationinterface 202′, a user interface 204′, one or more processors 206′, acomputer-readable memory 208′, an operating system 210′, one or moreapplications 212′, and device hardware 214′.

The multimedia services 130 a and 130 b may be hosted on a cloud network216, here corresponding to the network(s) 118 illustrated in FIG. 1. Themultimedia services 130 a and 130 b may provide the services of amultimedia server. Such a server may either be a physical dedicatedserver or a virtual machine. In the latter case, the cloud 216 mayrepresent a plurality of disaggregated servers which provide virtualapplication server functionality and virtual storage/databasefunctionality. The disaggregated servers that provide the multimediaservices 130 a and 130 b may incorporate physical computer servers,which may have components, features, and variations that aresubstantially analogous to those described for the EIT server 126, withaccess to multimedia content stored in, e.g., multimedia data stores 132a and 132 b.

Cloud services may be made accessible via an integrated cloudinfrastructure 218. The cloud infrastructure 218 not only providesaccess to cloud services, but also to other services that may includebut are not limited to billing services and other monetization services.The cloud infrastructure 218 may provide additional service abstractionssuch as Platform as a Service (“PaaS”), Infrastructure as a Service(“IaaS”), and Software as a Service (“SaaS”), to name three.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an architecture diagram in the contextof a mobile platform for RBJIT multimedia content and for mobileapplication management. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the mobiledevice 104 collects usage and behavior information for the user 102 andprovides the same for the MNO by way of the RBJIT 128. An opt-in policymay be employed to permit the individual user 102 to choose whether toallow their usage and behavior information to be collected. For example,the mobile device 104, via a setting in an application, may selectcertain kinds of information (e.g., geolocation, photo metadata,contacts) present on the mobile device 104 or certain behavior (e.g.,content accessed, time spent viewing certain content, ads, or websites)that may be collected by the RBJIT 128. Items available for opt-in (oropt-out, to select information or behavior not to be collected) may bemade available in accordance with terms and conditions enforced by anagreement with the MNO and/or other entity controlling the collection ofdata from the usage and behavior collection application discussedelsewhere herein. Opt-in and opt-out status for various items made bythe user 102 may subsequently become a part of the user's profile storedon the mobile device 104.

In some embodiments, the user 102 may be associated with various groupsof users. For example, the user 102 may be part of a family planassociated with a unique identifier that may be provided by the MNO. Inanother example, the user 102 may be associated with one or more socialnetwork communities, also associated with a unique identifier. The RBJIT128 also may impose its own groupings of users such as by a demographicand/or a geolocation of the users, in accordance with pre-establishedrules. In some embodiments, usage and behavior data of associated usersmay be aggregated by the RBJIT for analysis in addition to analysis ofan individual user's information. Indeed, the fact of user devices 104being used for voice conversations, social media chats, social mediapostings over mutual or related topics, etc. at given times can beleveraged to provide an additional basis for grouping by the RBJIT 128.In any of these cases, the collected usage and behavior information maybe aggregated by user, by group, or by any desired parameter set up formeasurement and/or analysis.

The applications 212 may include a surfacing application 302 and a usageand behavior collection application 304. The surfacing application 302may provide multimedia content surfaced by the RBJIT 128 to the userinterface 204 via the rendering engine 213 for a user 102 to view and toselect for rendering via the user interface 204. The usage and behaviorcollection application 304 may operate to monitor selections by andcontent consumption preferences 322 of the user 102 (optionally per useropt-in or opt-out). This collection of content consumption informationis called usage data. The multimedia content surfaced by the surfacingapplication 302 is determined by the RBJIT 128 based at least on themonitoring by the usage and behavior collection application 304. In someembodiments, the usage and behavior collection application 304 may bepart of the surfacing application 302.

The usage and behavior collection application 304 may collect useractivity information with respect to other applications 212 on themobile device 104 (optionally per user opt-in). The usage and behaviorcollection application 304 may correlate that activity with multimediacontent selections by the user 102 on the mobile device 104. Thesecorrelations are called behavior data. In this way, the usage andbehavior collection application 304 may collect both usage and behaviordata.

Content surfaced by the RBJIT 128 may be in the form of cards or tilesas the basic unit of the user experience. An individual card maycomprise static content (such as an advertisement, offer, or call toaction (e.g., to install or update software, purchase tickets within theapp flow, or link to an MNO or other application where a transaction canbe completed)), dynamic content (such as a movie trailer or programpreview), or a combination of both static and dynamic content, togetherwith metadata including but not limited to name, tagline, description,or URL. Content can be so-called first-party content sourced by the MNO(e.g., by way of example and without limitation limited-time marketingcontent such as product or service offers, group-related content,announcements, information on events local to the user, partnerinformation and other relationships such as corporate sponsorships,and/or billing information such as due dates and payment options) orfrom third-party sources

Content may be tagged for retrieval based on category, for example,and/or on other pieces of information such as keywords, parental controlrating, etc., including information commonly used for tagging content.Cards may be presented in different orders at different times or fordifferent users 102 as determined, at least in part, using artificialintelligence and the user's self-evolving profile. For example, theRBJIT 128 may process usage and behavior data for the user 102 ormultiple users, including one or more groups of users that include theuser 102.

The surfacing application 302 and the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 may both interface with the RBJIT 128 via an RBJITapplication programming interface (API) 306, which supportsmulti-threading. The usage and behavior collection application 304 maycollect usage and behavior data for the user 102 and send the same tothe RBJIT 128 via the API 306, for example. The RBJIT 128 may send, tothe surfacing application 302, surfacing content recommendations andmultimedia content for precaching in a cache 220 on the mobile device104. In some cases, the surfacing application 302 may notify the RBJIT128 of preference and profile information, such as opt-in status, viathe API 306.

The RBJIT 128 itself may comprise multiple software components. Adata-on-demand (DoD) rules engine 308 reviews data stored in adata-on-demand (DoD) data store 310. The DoD data store 310 may containboth rules and the collected usage and behavioral data from the varioususers. A machine learning and/or cognitive network/cognitive computing(ML/CN) engine 312, in concert with the DoD rules engine 308, developsdata models from the usage and behavior data in the DoD data store 310to make predictions of content of interest for the user 102.

As mentioned, the mobile device 104 may have relatively fewer computingprocessing resources and less computer-readable memory thanlarge-form-factor devices due to its size. Accordingly, cachingstrategies that might be used by a set-top box or personal computer maynot be practical on the mobile device 104. Moreover, due to limitedpower and limited processing, content preprocessing strategies thatmight be used by a set-top box or personal computer may also not bepractical on the mobile device 104.

Network bandwidth is another constraint. As the user 102 and the user'smobile device 104 move from one location to another, the networkconnection transfers from one antenna to another (e.g., from an antenna110 a to an antenna 110 b). Accordingly, bandwidth is limited by what isavailable from antenna to antenna. For example, if the antenna 110 a hasa relatively low number of users and the antenna 110 b is servicing alarge number of users, then the second antenna 110 b may have lessbandwidth available and the user 102 may suffer inconsistent bandwidthas the user 102 changes from the first antenna 110 a to the secondantenna 110 b. The result for a multimedia consumer is an inconsistentuser experience.

In at least some embodiments, data models developed by the ML/CN engine312 and the DoD rules engine 308 enforce limited payload response so asto only return data (multimedia content) which is required to be shownin the user interface 204. Multimedia content to be shown should beloaded only after the user 102 clicks/touches on a media tile or card.In some embodiments, multiple cards may be displayed via the userinterface 204 in scrollable fashion, such as a scrollable column or listof cards bearing content and/or links to content. The list may beessentially “infinitely” scrollable (i.e., in the sense of a practicallyendless list of voluminous content or a loop of finite content). Assuch, only multimedia content (including cards) that can be shown on theuser interface 204 should be downloaded to precache in such embodiments,with the rest of the list content being downloadable as the user 102scrolls up or down (i.e., on demand).

The API 306 responds to requests for multimedia content by the user 102via the mobile device 104 in accordance with constraints of the mobiledevice 104 and may thus return content in the appropriate media formatand media resolution. Also, regarding the mobile device 104 constraints,the surfacing application 302 may continuously monitor battery usage,resource availability, network speed, and connection quality, forexample, such that requests for multimedia content, consistent with thecontinuously developed data, cause the API 306 to return the appropriatemultimedia content as requested by the surfacing application 302.

Rules enforced by the DoD rules engine 308 generally support businesspurposes that influence and are carried out by the rules engine in theoverall surfacing of content. Thus, for example, cards surfaced foroffers and marketing campaigns may be time-limited, defined by start andend date/time. The number of customers and specific customers, customersegments, or customer groups who are presented or may redeem the offermay be set by rule. In some embodiments, the frequency of a campaign, orthe frequency of offerings within a campaign, may be capped. These arebut a few of countless options that may be set by rule and by which acard or cards are ultimately surfaced.

The ML/CN engine 312 is not limited to analyzing data stored in the DoDdata store 310 and also may have access to MNO data 314 and data fromone or more third-party sources 316. In some embodiments, data from athird-party source 316 may be accessed via a proxy 318. The proxy 318provides security by isolating the third-party source 316 from the RBJIT128. In some embodiments, the MNO may control the proxy 318, provideneeded proxy information to the third-party source 316, and routetraffic according to mappings that may be provided by the third-partyservice 316. In one or more embodiments, an API layer 320 may be builtto provide right-fitting of content (e.g., bandwidth considerations)and/or a secure endpoint for access by the third-party source 316.

The MNO data 314 may include information such as billing information todetermine what purchases have been made by the user 102, as well asidentification of friends and family. For example, the MNO may maintainan MNO family group or billing group identifier. In some cases, the MNOidentifier, such as T-Mobile US's T-Mobile ID™, may track not onlymobile devices 104 that have subscriber identification module (SIM)cards but also Wi-Fi-only devices. In some embodiments, a Wi-Fi-onlydevice may also have a surfacing application 302 and a usage behaviorand collection application 304 configured to interface with the RBJIT128. In this way, more comprehensive usage and behavior information maybe collected (subject to applicable terms and conditions of the useragreement with the MNO, especially as concerns collection of personallyidentifiable information), thereby improving the quality of the userdata in the DoD data store 310. The system may continuallydevelop/implement an algorithm using machine learning techniques toapply the usage and behavior information to the multimedia content basedon user engagements and additional input from customer data provided byMNO to improve, e.g., surfaced recommendations (supporting A/B testingrelated to both new and existing content in at least some embodiments).Recommendations are not limited to recommendations for individualcontent (e.g., a movie, a restaurant, etc.) but may includerecommendations of multiple content mixes (dinner and a show, movies ofa particular genre) to identify the most engaging content mix for anindividual user 102 or specific user segments or user groups.

The MNO data 314 may also include demographic and profile information ofvarious users 104. The MNO data 314 may be static, semi-static, ordynamic. In some embodiments, the user device 104 collects activityinformation on a substantially real-time basis. For example, the userdevice 104 may transmit geolocation information based on its GPSsensors. This geolocation data may be accessed as part of the MNO data314. In this way, data from the user 102 may be aggregated with data ofsets of users as defined by the ML/CN component 312 and the DoD rulesengine 308 using this demographic and profile information. Many othertypes of MNO data 314 may be collected in real-time—content consumed,number of clicks on a particular tile or CTA, etc. may all havereal-time value and be used to dynamically update data as needed.Additionally or alternatively, data may be collected and/or updatedperiodically or according to a schedule.

The RBJIT 128 may also receive usage and behavior data collected fromone or more third-party sources. The third-party sources may include theone or more third-party sources 316 and therefore may include data fromthe multimedia services 132 a and 132 b generally accessible via theirapplication programming interfaces. Data from third-party sources mayinclude social network information via their respective applicationprogramming interfaces. In this way, usage and behavior data accessiblefrom the third-party sources may supplement user data in the DoD datastore 310, and data from a user 102 may be aggregated with sets of usersas defined by the ML/CN component 312 and the DoD rules engine 308 usingthe third-party services and social network data.

With the ML/CN engine 312, the RBJIT 128 makes use of machinelearning/cognitive network techniques to predict multimedia content thatthe user is likely to consume. In some embodiments, the DoD rules engine308 makes predictions of multimedia content that may be of interest tothe user 102. These predictions not only are used to surface contentsuggestions, but also to determine how much multimedia content (e.g.,how much data) to download for precaching in the cache 220 (in full orin part) with high quality/high resolution/high fidelity data. In thisway, if a user 102 selects a specific multimedia content file, the user102 may readily experience on the mobile device 104 a high quality/highresolution/high fidelity version of the multimedia content from itscache 220. The size of the file precached may be determined based on oneor more factors such as the speed to download the (un-precached)remainder of the multimedia content not yet received by the mobiledevice 104. Accordingly, as the user device 104 outputs the precachedcontent, the rest of the content may be downloaded from the network andRBJIT 128.

The operation of the RBJIT 128 starts with the user 102 and the userdevice 104. The user device 104 may designate portions of the memory 208as the cache 220 and a cache 221. In some embodiments, the cache 221 isa persistent cache. The caches 220 and/or 221 may be stored in a userpartition. The persistent cache 221 stores the profile of a user andusage/behavior data collected by the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304. The respective sizes of the caches 220 and 221 areoptional and should be managed to meet objectives for battery usageoptimization and memory optimization considering network performance. Asdata gathering by the usage and behavior collection application 304 isreal-time, the persistent cache 221 need not be flushed frequently; forexample, flushing the persistent cache 221 approximately ever two daysmay be sufficient for most implementations. File size limitationlikewise is optional with 5 mb at run time being a useful guide. Cachingpolicy may be set by the user 102.

Because cache is limited, in some embodiments precaching may berestricted to multimedia content indicated by an algorithm, refined ortuned by the ML/CN engine 312 according to real-time usage and behaviordata collected from the mobile device 104 as well as a user profile 324,to be likely to be requested, ordered, downloaded, etc. by the user 102.With this in mind, advertisements need not be precached, for example.

The profile of the user may include opt-in and opt-out preferences 322(as used herein, “opt-in preferences”). The opt-in preferences 322 mayrelate tog multimedia content and user preferences specific to amultimedia service 130 a and 130 b and be included in the user profile324. Furthermore, the user profile 324 may store identifications ofsocial networks of which the user 102 is a member and opt-ins for theMNO to access this information, especially as may concern personallyidentifiable information. These preferences and identifiers provideadditional data and hints about the user that may be used by the ML/CNengine 312 in the just-in-time surfacing of multimedia content.

In some embodiments, the user profile may be edited via applicationsettings of the surfacing application 302 or another application.Whenever the user profile is established or updated, the contents of thepersistent cache 221 are also updated, and the user profile is sent tothe RBJIT 128 via the API 306 and stored in the DoD data store 310.

In some embodiments, the surfacing application 302 defines a set ofsoftware triggers corresponding to various user events. User events mayinclude, without limitation, selection of multimedia content, previewingmultimedia content, and viewing a page with multimedia content. The userevents may also include stopping and pausing playback of multimediacontent. The usage and behavior data are processed by the collectionapplication 304 and stored in the persistent cache 221. For example, thecollection application 304 may detect that a user 102 selected aspecific multimedia content (file) but stopped playing the file afterfive minutes and never returned to the file. The usage and behaviorcollection application 304 may either store the collection of events inthe persistent cache 221 or process these events as an indication ofthat the user 102 is not interested in the file.

In some embodiments, the operating system 210 of the mobile device 104enables the enlistment of events exposed by other applications 212 aswell as events of the operating system 210 itself. Upon detecting anevent published by the surfacing application 302, the usage and behaviorcollection application 304 may also collect events of other applications212 within a predetermined amount of time of detecting the surfacingapplication event. The usage and behavior collection application 304 maythen associate those events and the sources of those events with thesurface application event and store the association in the persistentcache 221. In turn, the ML/CN software component 312 provided with thisinformation may use it to detect behavioral data associated with thesurface application event. In this way, the information feeds thedetermination of content that should be precached and content thatshould not be precached, increasing the likelihood that content in theprecache will be demanded by the user 102 and consequently enhancing theuser experience.

The usage and behavior collection application 304 may collect events ofother applications 212 and push the same to the RBJIT 128 on demand.Alternatively or additionally, the RBJIT 128 may instruct the usage andbehavior collection application 304 to send behavioral data as part of auser request, or from time to time, to improve the ability of the RBJIT128 to predict what multimedia content is likely to be consumed ifsurfaced on demand, on the basis of behavior patterns.

In general, the usage and behavior collection application 304 may eitherpush the contents of the persistent cache 221 to the DoD data store 310either in response to an event on the mobile device 104, or the RBJIT128 may affirmatively pull the data on demand. An example of the usageand behavior collection application 304 pushing the data in thepersistent cache 221 may be to update the DoD data store 310 from timeto time. An example of the RBJIT 128 affirmatively pulling data from theusage and behavior collection application 304 is in determining contentto precache on the mobile device 104.

The DoD data store 314 may contain information not only about the user102, but also about other users in some embodiments. The ML/CN engine312 may aggregate the user data either individually to the user, by agroup with which the user 102 is affiliated, or with all users. Thegroup with which the user 102 is affiliated may be static or semi-static(such as by family, billing group, or social network community). In someembodiments, the group with which the user 102 is affiliated may bedynamic, such as a social network community defined by social networkcommunity attributes as provided by the third-party (social networkdata) source 316, or by demographic or geolocation attributes asprovided by the MNO data 314.

From time to time, the ML/CN engine 312 may develop one or more datamodels based on data of the user 102 or one or more user groups. TheseML/CN data models comprise adaptive rules for determining multimediacontent for surfacing.

Telemetry from the usage and behavior collection application 304 about acurrent state of the user device 104 is received by the RBJIT 128 andstored in the DoD data store 310 and made available to the DoD rulesengine 308. The DoD rules engine 308 also has access to MNO data 314,such as geolocation or other user device data. In addition to forminggroups based on geolocation, as mentioned elsewhere in this description,user (device) geolocation enables location-based content to bepreferentially surfaced where location-based content is available (i.e.,the ability to book tickets at a nearby movie theater or recommendationfor a nearby restaurant). The telemetry could also be a usage event withrespect to content surfaced by the surfacing application 302, orbehavior data transmitted by the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 from the persistent cache 221. Telemetry measurementsmay, in some embodiments, be by a unique tracking identifier to measureuser engagement with content (e.g., user selections of content and timeon content) and/or other content consumption metrics (supporting A/Btesting related to both new and existing content in at least someembodiments), useful for tailoring recommendations anddeveloping/following precaching policy as well as to meet contentlicensing and financial settlements, for example. Based on thistelemetry, the DoD rules engine 308 inputs this data into the one ormore ML/CN models which in turn generate a presentation (e.g., in alist) of multimedia content predicted to be of interest to the user 102.

Telemetry may be used to provide reports based on collection datacollected by the user behavior and collection application 304. Reportingmay be geared to evaluating aspects such as, and without limitation, theeffectiveness of the user experience (e.g., do conditions cause anadvertisement presented at content startup to load so slowly as toinduce the user to move on without waiting for the content), theeffectiveness of the content, the value of the service, and monetizationmetrics, including fill rate, click-through rate, CPM, eCPM, and/or soforth. The user behavior and collection application 304 may provide rawdata feeds, click logs, content load time, buffering status, and otheruser information. Based at least on such information, the reportingengine may provide reports that include but are not limited to userengagements, number of sessions, active views, number of offers, userinteractions with a service, various click-related metrics, actionswithin app, revenue-related metrics, reporting per channel, reportingper offer type, reporting per specific offer, and reporting per actionrecommended.

The DoD rules engine 308 may then output, to the API 306 for surfacingby the surfacing application 302, one or more of the predictedmultimedia content along with statistical measures of confidence. Thestatistical measures of confidence may be based on user/customer data asmentioned elsewhere herein received from the usage and behaviorcollection application 304, as well as system data and/or networkconditions (e.g., system load times, file size, buffering, bandwidth,and so forth, which may also take into account the kind of content andits buffering requirements) received from the third-party source 316,the data being delivered to the ML/CN engine 312, which may generate thestatistical measures, although one or more other components may beprovided and implemented alternatively or in combination to this end.The surfaced multimedia content files may be ranked by the ML/CN engine312 and selected by the surfacing application 302 based on thosestatistical measures of confidence.

The surfacing process performed by the surfacing application 302 mayinclude one or more of presenting the files comprising the multimediacontent to surface (recommended based on the statistical measures ofconfidence and/or ranking), thumbprints of the files, metadata of thefiles, and at least a portion of the multimedia content itself. Themultimedia content to be surfaced is then affirmatively pushed to themobile device 104. In this way, the mobile device 104 may surfacemultimedia content on demand with limited perceivable lag to the user102 at the quality/resolution/fidelity demanded by the user 102.

The RBJIT 128 enables various use cases. For example, different users102 may have different degrees of opting in or opting out, such as auser 102 who does not opt in to share usage and behavior data but maystill opt to share demographic data. The RBJIT 128 may then associatethat user 102 with other users in one or more groups. In someembodiments, the RBJIT 128 may surface multimedia content based on theusage and behavior of other users in that user's social networkcommunity, family group, or billing group, to name three examples. Insome instances, the ML/CN data models impose a threshold conditionaccording to which the likelihood of a user 102 consuming particularmultimedia content is quantified and must meet or exceed a thresholdthat may be set by the user 102, predetermined by the RBJIT 128, or theresult of learning from analysis of the usage and behavior data, orother data, by the DoD rules engine 308 and thus dynamic. In this way, anon-opt-in user may still benefit from this aspect of the RBJIT 128operation.

Typically, as more and more data are collected, the more the ML/CN datamodels improve, and the more the accuracy of the RBJIT 128 predictionsimproves. In some embodiments, over time, the surfacing application 302may generate new hints and store the same in the persistent cache 221 ofthe mobile device 104 instead of constantly recalculating predictions.When the persistent cache 221 is updated in this way, these generatednew hints will in turn modify the ML/CN data models in accordance withknown principles as modified to suit the novel operations disclosedherein. These hints may be edited in accordance with the surfacingapplication 302 settings. For example, in some embodiments,autogenerated hints may be suppressed, labeled, or edited by the user102.

To illustrate, consider a scenario in which the RBJIT 128 detects fromdata received from the usage and behavior collection application 304that every Sunday night, an NFL football game that was played earlier inthe day is watched on the user device 104. Implementing an algorithm,the RBJIT 128 may calculate, based on the received data, the MNO data314, and/or the data from the third-party source 316, that there is a95% chance of the game being watched and on the basis of 90% being abovea predetermined threshold set in accordance with the description herein,may generate a hint to proactively download the NFL game. The hint maybe autogenerated at the same time for each instance or at a time chosenby the user 102. The surfacing application 302 may receive anotification that the RBJIT 128 suggests the hint and upon acceptance bythe user 102, adds the hint to the persistent cache 221, which in turnupdates the RBJIT 128 and the ML/CN data models.

The user-directed opt-in preferences 322 may be accessible by the user102 via the user device 104. The user-directed opt-in preferences 322may, in some examples, provide various fields of information related tothe user 102 and her usage of the user device 104, which may be madeavailable for harvesting by the surfacing application 302 and/or theusage and behavior collection application 304. Some examples of suitablefields of information relate to social media accounts and activity,demographics, device usage history, applications stored on the userdevice 104, and Wi-Fi or data access history. These examples need notall be offered, and others not listed, may.

To indicate preferences, including opt-in or opt-out, the user interface204 may illustrate check boxes or the like for the user 102 to indicateone or more fields by, e.g., selecting the appropriate check boxes. Inembodiments wherein the check boxes represent user permission for an appto access (or not access) data or device components, the requesting appis made capable (or incapable) of accessing and leveraging such data ordevice components. Other techniques for permitting user opt-in oropt-out may also be employed

In some embodiments, the user 102 is interested in downloading contentfor consumption via the user device 104 as described herein, In suchembodiments, opt-ins selected by the user 102 may be leveraged by theuser device 104 and, in particular, by the surfacing application 302 andthe usage and behavior collection application 304 not only collect dataand use it to determine content to surface, but also to determinecontent to precache to enhance the user experience by, for example,placing the content on the user device 304 so that it is more readilyand quickly accessible by the user 102, whether in the form of a card orstreaming content or any other form, as described elsewhere herein.Information from fields relevant to these functions may be presented tothe user 102 and, based on her selections, may be used for precachingand/or surfacing decisions without any additional action by the user102. This permits the user 102 to benefit from the enhancements affordedby the RBJIT 128 without requiring knowledge of the rules-based decisionmaking happening in the background. What the user experiences is a rapidresponse to content selections and an ability to make choices morequickly than if the RBJIT 128 were unable to learn from the user'spreferences, opt-ins, and usage history.

Likewise, when the user 102 deactivates a particular field by, e.g.,clearing the related check box, then information from this field may notbe used for precaching and/or surfacing decisions in similarembodiments. In this manner, the user 102 may freely browse and select(or de-select) particular fields of information as desired to eitherinclude or restrict applications or external actors from precachingand/or surfacing on the user device 104. The selections made by the user102 in the user-directed opt-in preferences 322 may subsequently becomea part of their profile.

In various embodiments, the fields of information may each include oneor more subfields. For example and without limitation, a social mediafield may include one or more subfields for different social mediaplatforms. Upon opt-in (or in the absence of opt-out), the user 102effectively gives permission to the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 to collect information related to user behavior withrespect to any of these platforms. Such information may include, but isnot limited to, groups belonged to which the user belongs, pagesfollowed, discussion topics participated in, and/or interactions withidentifiable users. Likewise, selection of a demographics field maypermit access to such personal information as age, gender, and/orsalary, to name three. Other examples may include a device usage historyfield having subfields for calls, texts, and/or locations. Informationcollected may include metadata such as time and duration related tocalls and/or texts, in addition to detailed content information such asfull text and/or speech related to calls and/or texts. The locationssubfield may relate to the user's location history (such as cities,states, and/or countries traveled to), in addition to detailed locationhistory information such as malls, stores, neighborhoods, or even otherindividuals traveled to and/or associated with. Such data utilizedbeneficially may enable the RBJIT 128 to preferentially surfaceinformation relevant to the user's present location or predicted futurelocation. For example, a user who frequents a particular part of a citymay receive, on the user device 104, precached thumbnail videos relatingto nearby events, together with a call to action button to go directlyto a ticket purchasing site upon selection. Advertisements for localestablishments or services frequently used by residents of identifiedlocations may be targeted to the user 102 in a similar way. For example,an advertisement to book a rental car may be presented upon recognizingthat the user 102 is at an airport or hotel.

In some embodiments, because the user 102 may be willing to receiveadvertisements or suggests of these types for certain subject matter butnot others, the opt-in preferences 322 may include categories by whichthe user 102 may opt-in or out on that basis. For example, events may becategorized as “sporting” events or “music” events, which may in turn bebroken down into “arena” events or “club” events. In such embodiments,the user 102 may be interested in sporting events and clubs, and thusopt-in to receiving such content and/or advertisements.

Numerous fields may be defined for categorizing information, any or allof which may be presented to the user 102 for opt-in or opt-out.Further, the user 102 may revisit and edit user-directed opt-inpreferences 322 at any time in some embodiments, giving the user 102non-negligible control over use of her information, whether sensitive ornot, which in turn gives the user significant control over the ultimateresults of content selection, precaching policy, and update policies forapps individually or collectively. In this way, the user 102 maycontinually tailor her user profile 324 to enhance her user experience.

In order that the user 102 is aware of the options for opting in and/orout, and further to enforce user preferences as described herein, termsand conditions (or terms of service) are provided for the user 102 toaccept. In some instances, nonacceptance by the user 102 results in theinability to use and/or take advantage of apps and services describedherein, including but not limited to services that enhance userexperience in accordance with the collection and use of usage andbehavior data such as precaching, providing data on demand, and pushedsoftware updates. These terms and conditions may be provided by the MNOvia the RBJIT 128 or otherwise (for example, by individual apps on theuser device 104). Further, individual types of information, such asthose associated with fields in embodiments that utilize fields, may besubject to opt-in or opt-out. In some embodiments, the user preferencesare maintained in whole or in part in the user profile 324. However, nolimitation is intended or should be inferred.

Actual opt-in language will be tailored to the context. For example,terms and conditions may be provided at app installation, device setupor registration, device activation, or service initiation, and/or may bepresented at intervals to provide an opportunity for the user to updatepreferences or to comply with applicable regulations, or if the user 102initially declines. The terms and conditions may be presented in theirentirety upon any of these events, or may be accessible by a linkprovided in their stead. The terms and conditions may include a privacypolicy or a link thereto.

FIGS. 4-6 present illustrative processes for implementing mobile devicerules-based just-in-time servicing. The processes are illustratedrespectively as a collection of blocks in logical flow charts, whichrepresent sequences of operations that can be implemented in hardware,software, or a combination thereof. In the context of software, theblocks represent computer-executable instructions that, when executed byone or more processors, perform the recited operations. Generally,computer-executable instructions may include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular abstract data types. Theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks can becombined in any order and/or in parallel to implement the process. Fordiscussion purposes, the processes are described with reference to thenetwork architecture 100 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example process 400 performed at least inpart by the mobile device 104 for surfacing multimedia content. At Block402, the mobile device 104 receives multimedia content from the RBJIT128. Multimedia content may be provided by the MNO or by third-partysources and may be static or dynamic. The multimedia content mayinclude, without limitation, short form video content, linear TVcontent, movie trailers, music videos, news articles, news clips, photogallery carousels, app recommendations, offers, or direct commerce.

At Block 404, the mobile device 104 precaches the multimedia contentreceived in Block 402 in the cache 220. The cache 220 is sized to storean amount of multimedia content that may be presented via the userinterface 204 on demand by the user, for example in scrollable fashion,such as a scrollable column or list of cards bearing content and/orlinks to content. Start and end dates/times in the cache 220 may beestablished for the multimedia content to allow windowing of events(e.g., offers, movie trailers, etc.) and auto-removal from the cache 220once expired.

At Block 406, the mobile device 104 receives, for example via the userinterface 204, a selection by the user 102 that enable certain actionsincluding the presentation of multimedia content on the user interface104. Such multimedia content may be present at least in part in thecache 220 for ready and speedy retrieval and presentation.

At Block 408, the mobile device 104 surfaces the multimedia content viathe user interface 204. The multimedia content is surfaced by thesurfacing application 302 from the cache 220 in portions sufficient tomaintain a high-quality user experience due to the relative speed ofcaching technology and policy, as well as the proximity of the cache 220(i.e., being in the mobile device 104 itself).

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example process 500 performed at least inpart by the mobile device 104 for collecting usage and behavior data ofthe user 102. At Block 502, the mobile device 104 receives userpreferences from the user 102, for example via user input to the userinterface 204. The user preferences may include, without limitation, howmuch content to cache in the persistent cache 221, how long for thecontent to be cached, whether the user opts to allow collection ofcertain information (or of all information) related to usage andbehavior while using the mobile device 104, selection and contentconsumption history, identifications of social networks of which theuser 102 is a member, and/or so forth. In some embodiments, the userpreferences manage what data may or may not be collected by the usageand behavior application 304 or manage what data the usage and behaviorapplication 304 may provide to the RBJIT 128. In some embodiments, thepreferences may be set individually for different applications (e.g.,one application may be permitted to collect location information whileanother application may not). Some settings may be set by the user aspreferences for some applications but not for all (e.g., the user may beable to deny permission for one application to access contacts whereasbut unable to deny the same permission to another application).

At Block 504, the usage and behavior collection application 304 collectsusage and behavior data of the user 102 under control of the one or moreprocessors 206. The usage and behavior data may be collected on areal-time basis and may include, without limitation, demographic andprofile information (static, semi-static, or dynamic) such asgeolocation information, content consumed, number of clicks on aparticular tile or CTA, and other activity information. In addition tocollecting new data, the usage and behavior collection application 304may collect dynamically updated data. Additionally or alternatively,data may be collected and/or updated periodically or according to aschedule.

At Block 506, the mobile device 104 may apply the user preferences tomanage the information collected by the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 and/or provided to the RBJIT 128 by the usage andbehavior collection application 304. The user preferences may be appliedby the usage and behavior collection application 304 or by separatehardware or software within the mobile device 104, under control of theone or more processors 206.

At Block 508, the mobile device 104 may send the usage and behavior datato the RBJIT 128. The usage and behavior data may be sent by the usageand behavior collection application 128 or by another application underthe control of the one or more processors 206.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example process 600 performed at least inpart by the RBJIT 128 for determining multimedia content for sending tothe mobile device 104. At Block 602, the RBJIT 128 may obtain multimediacontent from the data-on-demand data store 310 or from the one or morethird-party sources 316 in response to a request received from themobile device 104 (e.g., from the surfacing application 302). Multimediacontent obtained from the one or more third-party sources 316 may beobtained via the proxy 318.

At Block 604, the RBJIT 128 obtains usage and behavior data from themobile device 104 (e.g., from the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304). The usage and behavior data may be obtained in wholeor in part in real time. Usage and behavior data may be obtained fromthe one or more third-party sources 316 as well. The usage and behaviordata may be data of the user 102 or, additionally or alternatively, frommultiple users of one or more groups of users to which the user 102belongs. Additionally or alternatively, usage and behavior data, such asthe usage and behavior data obtained from the one or more third-partysources 316, may be data of multiple users to be considered in additionto the data of the user 102.

At Block 606, the RBJIT 128 applies rules to the multimedia content forcomputing statistical measures of confidence that the user 102 will beinterested in the content if surfaced to the mobile device 104. Therules are obtained from the DoD rules engine 308, for example, appliedaccording to an algorithm. The ML/CN engine 312 may apply machinelearning to results of prior content consumption by the user 102 ormultiple users as outlined elsewhere herein to refine the rules to beapplied by the DoD rules engine 308.

At Block 608, the RBJIT 128 computes statistical measures of confidencethat the multimedia content considered for surfacing will be of interestto the user 102. The statistical measures of confidence may be based onuser/customer data as well as system data and/or network conditions asdescribed herein, the data being delivered to the ML/CN engine 312,which may generate the statistical measures, although one or more othercomponents may be provided and implemented alternatively or incombination to this end.

At Block 610, the RBJIT 128 makes predictions based on the statisticalmeasures of confidence computed at Block 608. In some embodiments, theDoD rules engine 308 makes use of machine learning/cognitive networktechniques of the ML/CN engine 312 to predict multimedia content thatthe user is likely to consume. These predictions may also be used todetermine how much multimedia content (e.g., how much data) to downloadfor precaching in the cache 220.

At Block 612, the RBJIT 128 outputs multimedia content to the mobiledevice 104. In some embodiments, the mobile device 104 may pull themultimedia content and/or the RBJIT 128 may push the content. In someembodiments, the multimedia content is output before being requested bythe user 102, in portions set for the size of the cache 220 so that theuser 102 may be presented with the multimedia content on demand from thecache 220 when requested. How much to precache in this way, as well asthe content itself, is determined using the techniques described herein.

The usage and behavioral data utilized in one or more of the disclosedembodiments may be sensitive. In some embodiments, access to the usageand behavioral data is controlled in accordance with permissions.Additionally, the surfacing application 302 and the usage and behaviorcollection application 304 manage flow of data, including that of largemultimedia content files. Accordingly, the MNO may have management andversioning challenges, as well as network bandwidth managementchallenges.

In light of these challenges, the surfacing application 302 has theability in some embodiments to manage downloads of multimedia contentfiles recommended by the RBJIT 128. Multimedia content downloads arepotentially quite large. Since the RBJIT 128 exercises aspects of aserver, the RBJIT 128 may respond to download requests from thesurfacing application 302. From time to time, the RBJIT 128 may not beable to respond to the surfacing application 302, for example due to ahigh volume of requests. In general, applications that do not receive aresponse from a server may poll the server again. For the RBJIT 128,however, this is counterproductive. Therefore, in some embodiments, thesurfacing application 302 and the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 may be configured not to re-poll the RBJIT 128 for apredetermined amount of time that may be set to increase with eachfailed connectivity attempt in some embodiments. This technique iscalled “retry and backoff” (RAB) since the surfacing application 302 andthe usage and behavior collection application 304 are backing off fromcontacting the RBJIT 128 with each failed retry.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an RAB scheme that may be implementedin a system for mobile application management. In some embodiments, thescheme illustrated in FIG. 7 may be implemented in the context of amobile platform for rules-based just-in-time multimedia contentservicing and for mobile application management as shown in FIG. 3 anddescribed elsewhere herein.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, a download manager 702 in the mobiledevice 104 comprises hardware, software, or a combination of hardwareand software. For example, the download manager 702 may include one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media having executableinstructions that, if executed by the one or more processors 206, causethe processor(s) 206 to perform operations to communicate with the RBJIT128 on behalf of the mobile device 104 and, in particular, on behalf ofa mobile application 704 (such as the surfacing application 302). Insome embodiments, the download manager 702 communicates with ascheduling manager 706 stored on the EIT server 126 and accessed via anAPI 708. The scheduling manager 706 may be configured of hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, thescheduling manager may include one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media having executable instructions that, if executedon the one or more processors 206′, cause the processor(s) 206′ toperform operations to monitor load on the RBJIT 128 (includingmonitoring the capacity of the RBJIT 128 to handle download requests)and to provide information used by the download manager 702 to manageone or more scheduling functions managed, including but not limited to aretry configuration 710 stored in the memory 208 on the mobile device104 by which the download manager 702 on the mobile device 104 performsRAB. In some examples, the information provided by the schedulingmanager includes feedback to the download manager 702 and/or directionto change, e.g., override, certain settings in of the retryconfiguration. The settings may be changed for a set period of time oruntil reset by the download manager 702 at its own initiative or by userinput. In some embodiments, the settings may include a longer or shorterdelay determined by the scheduling manager based on a machine learningalgorithm as discussed more fully below.

In some scenarios, the scheduling manager 706 might make a request tospawn virtual machines with more download servers to address anoverload. However, in the case of content servicing, content serverstake time to instantiate. Thus, in some embodiments, the schedulingmanager 706 may include a notification along with a “server notavailable” message. Upon receipt, the download manager 702 may select amore rapidly increasing download function. However, in some examples,the scheduling manager 706 may nevertheless request no further retriesfor a time specified by the scheduling manager 706 in accordance with apre-established rule governing the scheduling manager 706. The rule mayspecify a predetermined time enforced by the scheduling manager 706, orthe time may be set based on present circumstances based at least oninput from a machine learning algorithm. In the latter case, the machinelearning algorithm may learn on data of prior heavy-demand downloads toput forth an optimal timeout period.

In some embodiments, RAB is a scheduling function to prevent theoverloading of download servers such as the RBJIT 128. Client devices,such as the mobile device 104, may seek software system updates, updatesof applications, content or other downloadable assets, or be made awareof their availability. In cases of updates, client devices frequentlyreceive notification from the RBJIT 128, a play store, or from themobile app itself that a download is available. Commonly, all clientdevices having the same mobile app 704 receive the notifications at thesame time, and as a result a large number will attempt to access thedownload servers at substantially the same time. If the download serverinfrastructure is not sufficient to handle the simultaneous demands ofthe client devices, the download server infrastructure may crash, whichis inconvenient to the user, ties up device resources, and may lead to acorresponding pause or failure of the application of concern due tolikely temporary API errors.

On receiving a response from the API 708 to the situation (e.g., servernot available), the mobile app 704 may continue to retry for the updateor content (and backoff in case of failure) indefinitely or untilexpiration of a time period or number of retries preset in the mobiledevice 104 or RBJIT 128, inhibiting resolution of the congestion. Insome embodiments, a retry configuration is set by the scheduling manager706 of the RBJIT 128 and enforced by the download manager 702 of themobile device 104. The retry configuration may be stored on the mobiledevice 104 in device memory 208 or in a refreshable cache 710, and maybe pulled to cache for refresh as described elsewhere herein. The retryconfiguration may be retrieved from its location as needed, for exampleduring RAB and/or as part of a mobile app version check.

In some embodiments, because the mobile app 704 attempts the downloadaccording to the policy set in the retry configuration, there is nodefault retry configuration. If no retry configuration is available,then a retryable:false parameter is forced on the download manager 702even if a retryable:true is returned in an API response to a faileddownload request.

To the extent that the surfacing application 302 is able to eitherprecache or download the multimedia content, the user 102 will not see adegradation in the quality of viewed multimedia content. In this way,the RBJIT 128 is protected from being overwhelmed by retry requests.

In various embodiments, the retry configuration may employ differentre-polling behavior depending on the given scenario. For example, theretry configuration may specify that the download manager 702 wait apredetermined amount of time (e.g. predetermined backoff time) beforere-polling the RBJIT 128 after a failed download attempt. In someexamples, the backoff time (intervals between retries) may increase,decrease, or remain the same in accordance with a retry configurationset by the scheduling manager 706 of the RBJIT 128 and enforced by thedownload manager 702 of the mobile device 104. In some embodiments, theintervals between successive retries may increase linearly (e.g.,increase by the same addend); in other embodiments, the intervals mayincrease nonlinearly (e.g., increase exponentially or by predeterminedincrements) in accordance with the retry configuration, potentiallyavoiding the need to obtain an entirely new release of the mobile app704 by, e.g., a visit to an app store. For example, and withoutlimitation, subsequent intervals may increase by a multiplier,exponentially, or by another algorithm suited for the purpose. Inembodiments where the predetermined retry interval increases betweensubsequent re-polling attempts, the amount of increase may be staticallydetermined based on a fixed scheme (e.g., fixed multiplier oralgorithm), or may be dynamically determined based on a subscriptionpolicy, which may take into account a usage plan (e.g., subscriptiontier), a measurable parameter such as network congestion, signal qualityat the mobile device 104, and/or a condition underlying the downloadsuch as exigency of the update/content. For example, an urgent securitypatch may be given a more slowly increasing interval rate retryscheduling function, such as a linear function with a small addend,whereas a content download might have a steeply increasing function. Insome examples, different functions may be imposed by the MNO fordifferent subscriber tiers; a more expensive tier may receive priorityresponse (i.e., more slowly increasing intervals) as compared with aless expensive tier, which might receive an exponential function. Afunction may also be determined by the user. For example, the user mayprioritize a frequently used mobile app 704 by setting a more slowlyincreasing function. In such instances, the scheduling manager 706 maymake the retry configuration or components thereof lockable features,whereby a user may pay for greater control or a subscriber tier mayoffer greater control, unlockable in each case by the scheduling manager706 in accordance with corresponding permissions. Thus, each mobiledevice 104 in communication with the RBJIT 128 may employ a differentretry configuration with the goal of reducing failed attempts. It willbe appreciated that various RAB policies or retry configurations may beemployed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

In one example, a field may be added to the API response (e.g.,“retry_config”) of “/config” to provide the retry configuration. Anexample API response setting or managing the retry configuration mayproceed as follows. In this example, “random” is a function whichgenerates a random number between 0 and a maximum value. A reasonablevalue should be chosen suitable for the use case (here, an interactiveapp:

  {“retry_config ″: { “random”:”100”,  “interval″: [   {“attempt″:“500″},   {“attempt”: “1000″},   {“attempt”: “5000″}  ] }}

In this example, in the event of a failed download attempt andretryable:true is returned, then, the first retry interval (backoffperiod) is 600 ms (100 ms+500 ms), the second interval is increased by1000 ms (600 ms+1000 ms=1600 ms), and the third interval is increased by5000 ms (1600 ms+5000 ms=6600 ms). After three retry attempts by thedownload manager 702, retryable:false is returned and no furtherrequests are sent. In addition, a retryable:false response may bereturned under certain conditions set in the configuration (e.g., a setnumber of retries has been reached, a set time period for retries hasbeen reached, the server has crashed, etc.). In such a case, no furtherrequests are sent.

In various embodiments, the provisioning of the retry configurationitself may be carried out using different techniques depending on thegiven scenario. For example, in one embodiment, the retry configurationmay be provisioned externally to the mobile app 704 in order to allowthe configuration to be changed without requiring an update to themobile app 704. In one instance of external provisioning, it may bedesirable for the download manager 702 to retrieve the retryconfiguration from the cache 710 while performing a version check of themobile app 704. In this case, in response to the download manager 702sending a version check query to the RBJIT 128 (or other server in thecore network 108), the download manager 710 may receive modifications tothe retry configuration and an indication of the latest versions of themobile app 704. In another instance of external provisioning, the RBJIT128 or other server may push the retry configuration to the downloadmanager 702 as either a separate message containing the retryconfiguration or as a forced cache refresh request that forces thedownload manager 702 to update a stored version of its retryconfiguration. In any case, embodiments having an externally provisionedretry configuration may allow the RBJIT 128 and the download manager 702to set the retry configuration in a manner that is independent of theparticular versions of the mobile app 704.

FIGS. 8-11 present illustrative processes for implementingretry-and-backoff servicing. The processes are illustrated respectivelyas a collection of blocks in logical flow charts, which representsequences of operations that can be implemented in hardware, software,or a combination thereof. In the context of software, the blocksrepresent computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one ormore processors, perform the recited operations. Generally,computer-executable instructions may include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular abstract data types. Theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks can becombined in any order and/or in parallel to implement the process. Fordiscussion purposes, the processes are described with reference to thenetwork architecture 100 of FIG. 1 and the RAB scheme of FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an example process 800 performed at least inpart by the download manager 702 for requesting a data asset fordownload and conducting an RAB in instances of server unavailability. AtBlock 802 of the illustrated example, the download manager 702 receivesa software event to perform a download of a downloadable asset. Thesoftware event may be client-side such as a user-driven request enteredvia the user interface 204 for example, or it may be server-side such asa notification from the RBJIT 128 that a download is available. Thesoftware event may be automatically driven, such as by a machinelearning model predicting that a user is likely to request access tocontent, and to proactively download or update the content in oneexample. The model may be built and the machine learning performed asdescribed elsewhere herein.

At Block 804, the download manager 702 obtains the retry configurationcorresponding to the downloadable asset. The retry configuration may beobtained by accessing a user profile, which may be stored in the memory208 and retrieved to the cache 710 if not already present there. In someembodiments, the retry configuration may not be associated with a userprofile and/or may be retrieved separately from a user profile.

At Block 806, the download manager 702 sends a request to the RBJIT 128for a downloadable asset. In one or more embodiments, the request issent to the RBJIT 128 via the API 708 and the RBJIT 128 in responseattempts to access an appropriate download server 712 to obtain theasset.

At Block 808, the mobile device 104 receives a response via the API 708.The response may be a positive response, i.e., the requested asset, or anegative response 712, indicating that a download server is notavailable.

At Block 810, the download manager 702 determines whether a positive ornegative response is received. If the attempt is successful (i.e., “yes”at Block 808), then the process 800 proceeds to Block 812 and the RBJIT128 connects the download manager 702 to the accessible download server712. At Block 814, the asset is downloaded.

However, if the attempt is unsuccessful (i.e., “no” at Block 810), thenthe response triggers the download manager 702 to begin the RAB process.Thus, at Block 816, the download manager 702 stops polling the RBJIT 128for the time set in the retry configuration.

At Block 818, the download manager 702 determines whether a retry ispermitted by the retry configuration. If so, and assuming that theinterval has expired, the process returns to Block 810 and the downloadmanager 702 polls the RBJIT 128 again. If a positive response isreceived this time at Block 810, then the download manager 702 isconnected to the download server 712 at Block 812 and the asset isdownloaded at Block 814. However, if a negative response is received,then the process 900 continues at Block 816 and the download manager 702begins another retry interval.

At the expiration of the interval, at Block 818, the download manager702 determines whether another retry is possible according to the retryconfiguration. If so, then the process 800 returns to Block 810 asbefore. However, if the retry configuration prohibits further attempts,then the process 800 moves to Block 820 and ends.

The RAB loop from Block 810 to Block 816 to Block 818 and back to Block810 may continue until either the asset is downloaded or the maximumnumber of retries established in the retry configuration (if set) areexhausted.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example process 900 performed at least inpart by the scheduling manager 706 for identifying a download server 714for downloading a requested data asset. At Block 902, the schedulingmanager 706 sends a notification to the download manager 702 that adownloadable asset is available.

At Block 904, the RBJIT 128 receives a request from the download manager702 for the downloadable asset. In one or more embodiments, the API 708receives the request to download the asset and the RBJIT 128 in responseattempts to access an appropriate download server 712 to obtain theasset. In the meantime, the scheduling manager 706 on the RBJIT 128tracks the request along with all other requests for the same asset fromother devices. Block 904 will receive repeat requests from the downloadmanager 702 during an RAB process until a connection is established asin Block 812.

At Block 906, the RBJIT 128 determines whether a download server 712 isavailable. If a download server 712 is available (“yes” at block 906)then the process 900 continues to Block 908, at which the schedulingmanager 706 connects the download manager 702 to the available downloadserver 712 via passing credentials and a network address of therequesting mobile device 104. If no download server 712 is available(“no” at Block 906) from which to download the asset, the schedulingmanager 706 returns a “server not available” message via the API 708(Block 910).

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an example process 1000 performed at leastin part by the scheduling manager 706 for responding to and/or modifyingan RAB from the mobile device 104. In some embodiments, the schedulingmanager 706 makes recommendations for the retry interval based on thedownload server load. For example, a heavier load indicates a greaterlikelihood of server unavailability for downloading assets as described,for example, with respect to FIGS. 8 and 9, and so the schedulingmanager 706 may recommend a longer retry interval in an effort to loadbalance and increase the likelihood that the next or nearly next retrywill be successful in connecting to a download server 714.

At Block 1002, the scheduling manager 706 determines the load on thedownload server(s) 714. In some embodiments, the scheduling manager 706may access a machine learning model (stored locally or accessed via anetwork) to predict load on the download server(s) 714 and, based on theload prediction, generate a direction or a recommended delay beforeretry. In other embodiments, the scheduling manager 706 may determinethe current load on the download server(s) 714 and, based on the loaddetermination, generate a recommended delay before retry. Therecommended delay may be sent along with the “server not available”message in Block 910 or as a separate notification.

At Decision Block 1004, the scheduling manager 706 determines whether ithas access privileges to check settings of the retry configuration 710.In some embodiments, opt-in must be set (or opt-out not set) to give thescheduling manager 706 access to settings in the retry configuration710, including but not limited to the retry interval. In suchembodiments, the scheduling manager 706 checks for opt-in or opt-outstatus and checks the retry interval setting after confirmation of thisaccess right. The Decision Block 1004 is shown with dashed lines toindicate that this check is not present in some embodiments. Forexample, the check is not made if opt-in (or not opt-out) is alreadyknown to the scheduling manager 706 or if access privileges are grantedto a carrier, e.g., in accordance with the terms and conditions of theuser's subscription to the carrier's services.

If the scheduling manager has access privileges to the retryconfiguration (i.e., “yes” at Decision Block 1004), then the process1000 goes to Block 1006, at which the scheduling manager 706 checks theretry configuration 710 and obtains the retry interval set there.

At Block 1008, the scheduling manager 706 applies the machine learning(ML) model to the obtained retry interval. In some examples, and withoutlimitation, the ML model may have been trained using inputs of pastrequests and responses, and ensuing server loads, given similar types ofdownloads in similar conditions.

At Decision Block 1010, the scheduling manager 706 determines whetherthe retry interval satisfies the ML model. The retry interval satisfiesthe ML model if the model output predicts that the download servers willnot be overloaded by RAB given the obtained retry interval. If the retryinterval does not satisfy the ML model (i.e., “no” at Decision Block1010), then the process 1000 proceeds to Block 1012.

At Block 1012, the scheduling manager 706 sends a recommended delay tothe download manager 702. The recommended delay may be sent with the“server not available” notification. In some embodiments, receiving therecommended delay may trigger the download manager 702 to provide anotification message to the user 102, e.g., via the user interface 204.The notification may be via a dialog box, or via a smartphonenotifications facility, or via SMS text message, to name a few examples.The download manager 702 may then delay the subsequent retry per therecommended delay, subject to the user response (i.e., prohibitmodification to the retry configuration is “no” and permit modificationif “yes”) or failure to respond within a predetermined time (“no”).Conversely, if there is no recommended delay, or the recommended delaytime has expired, the download manager 702 may proceed with a retrybased on the retry configuration 710 without modification.

The recommended delay may be an entirely different retry configuration,replacing the current retry configuration, or a modification of thecurrent retry configuration, which may be faster than the current retryconfiguration. For example, and without limitation, the schedulingmanager 706 may check user records to see if the user 102 has paid forpriority routing relative to other, non-priority users and, if so,provide an earlier download time (shorter retry interval) accordingly.

As noted above, the user 102 may be given the option to accept or refusethe new retry configuration 710 or modification. Additionally, oralternatively, one or more settings in the retry configuration 710 maybe made overridable or not overridable by the user 102. In someembodiments, the new retry configuration or modification may be sentalong with the “server not available” message.

In some embodiments, if the download manager 702 receives a recommendedretry configuration or modification, the download manager 702 mayconfirm the user's eligibility for the change. For illustration, in theexample given above, if the download manager 702 receives a recommendedor modified retry configuration 710, the download manager 702 may checkthe user profile to see if the user 102 is eligible, (e.g., has paidfora service) to have priority routing. If the recommended retryconfiguration from the scheduling manager 706 is overridable, auser-selected retry configuration or parameter may be used instead.Otherwise, the recommended retry configuration is used.

Unless an expiration has been set, retries may continue until the assethas been downloaded. Alternatively, the RAB can be paused by the user102 or by the scheduling manager 706. With one or more retries, anotification may be sent to the user, based on user profile settings.For example, the settings may reflect the user's preference to suppresssuch notifications, or to select a subset of notifications (such assuccess of the download).

If the retry interval satisfies the ML model (i.e., “yes” at DecisionBlock 1010), then the process 1000 proceeds to Block 1014 and ends. Thedownload manager 702 will proceed with RAB based on the current retryconfiguration 710, without modification.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an example process 1100 performed at leastin part by the download manager 702 for managing an RAB on the mobiledevice 104. In some embodiments, the download manager 702 receivesrecommendations for the retry interval based on the download serverload. For example, a heavier load indicates a greater likelihood ofserver unavailability for downloading assets as described, for example,with respect to FIGS. 8 and 9, and so the download manager 702 mayreceive a recommendation for a longer retry interval in an effort toload balance and increase the likelihood that the next or nearly nextretry will be successful in connecting to a download server 714.

At Block 1102, the download manager 702 receives a recommended delaymessage from the scheduling manager 706. The recommended delay may besent by the scheduling manager 706 with a “server not available”notification in response to a request for download.

In some embodiments, in response to receiving the recommended retryconfiguration or modification, the download manager 702 may confirm theuser's eligibility for the change. At Block 1104, the download manager702 may check the user profile to see if the user 102 is eligible,(e.g., has paid for a service) to have priority routing, for example.Block 1104 may occur at any point in the process 1100. One or moresettings in the retry configuration 710 may be made overridable or notoverridable by the user 102. If the recommended retry configuration fromthe scheduling manager 706 is overridable, a user-selected retryconfiguration or parameter may be used instead. Otherwise, therecommended retry configuration is used, subject to user approval orother condition as described herein.

At Block 1106, the recommended delay message may trigger the downloadmanager 702 to provide a notification message to the user 102, e.g., viathe user interface 204. The notification may be via a dialog box, or viaa smartphone notifications facility, or via SMS text message, to name afew examples.

At Block 1108, the download manager 702 may determine whether the userapproves the recommended delay. In some embodiments, Block 1108 may beomitted, as shown by its dashed lines, in favor of an automatic responseby the download manager 702 to implement the delay recommended by thescheduling manager 706, automatically refuse the recommended delay, orautomatically implement a different delay irrespective of therecommended delay. Such automatic responses may be preset by the user orotherwise in the retry configuration 710.

If the result of the Decision Block 1108 is “yes”, the process 1100 mayproceed to Block 1110. At Block 1110, the download manager 702 may, inaccordance with the decision, modify the retry configuration 710 anddelay the subsequent retry per the recommended delay. If the recommendeddelay time has expired, the download manager 702 may proceed with aretry based on the retry configuration 710 without modification.

At Block 1112, the download manager 702 proceeds with the RAB inaccordance with the recommended delay. The modified interval will beobserved through subsequent retries until another modification isreceived from the scheduling manager 706 (and approved by the user 102,if applicable) or the download manager 702 or user 102, or anotherinstigator, reverts to the previous configuration or changes to anothermodified version. Terms and conditions of the subscriber agreement maydictate these and other changes.

If the result of the Decision Block 1108 is “no,” the process 1100 mayproceed to Block 1114. At Block 1114, the download manager 702 proceedswith the RAB in accordance with the current settings of the retryconfiguration 710, without modification, as described elsewhere herein.

The recommended delay may be an entirely different retry configuration,replacing the current retry configuration, or a modification of thecurrent retry configuration, which may be faster than the current retryconfiguration. For example, and without limitation, the schedulingmanager 706 may check user records to see if the user 102 has paid forpriority routing relative to other, non-priority users and, if so,provide an earlier download time (shorter retry interval) accordingly.

Unless an expiration has been set, retries may continue until the assethas been downloaded. Alternatively, the RAB can be paused by the user102 or by the scheduling manager 706. With one or more retries, anotification may be sent to the user, based on user profile settings.For example, the settings may reflect the user's preference to suppresssuch notifications, or to select a subset of notifications (such assuccess of the download).

In some embodiments, the download manager 702 may receive a notificationfrom the scheduling manager 706 to proceed without modification. Inother embodiments, the download manager 702 may proceed withoutmodification by default, for example by backing off for the currentlyset retry interval and retrying at the end of the interval unless anotification has been received from the scheduling manager 706 to modifythe interval set in the retry configuration 710. In such embodiments, ifthat notification includes a recommendation to modify the retry intervalto a shorter interval and the recommended time for the interval hasalready passed, then the modified interval may be set to begin followinga subsequent failed retry, subject to user approval in those embodimentsin which user approval is required.

In some embodiments, the surfacing application 302 may perform smartdownloads from the RBJIT 128. For example, the ML/CN engine 312 maytrack software events, including tracking attempted downloads ofmultimedia content, and at what times. The ML/CN engine 312 may alsotrack reasons for failure, such as network congestion or resourcecontention of the files on the server side. The ML/CN engine 312 maythen create or adjust one or more ML/CN data models to predict the besttimes to download files and minimize the number of failed downloads andsubsequent retry and backoff attempts. In this way, while retry andbackoff protect the RBJIT 128, the number of backoffs may be minimized.

As previously mentioned, the surfacing application 302 and the collectorapplication 304 may collect information on a user opt-in basis.Furthermore, the RBJIT 128 may access one or both MNO data 314 andthird-party source 316 data. The user may use the setting options forthe surfacing application 302 or another application to performper-field access control. For example, when an application 212 isinstalled, the RBJIT 128 may be notified. Field definitions associatedwith the installed application may be retrieved by a side lookup table.Those fields may be then served by the RBJIT 128 to the surfacingapplication 302 and the usage and behavior collection application 304 toallow the enumeration of configurable fields. In this way, the user 102may be provided with access to data fields accessible by the RBJIT 128platform, both on the mobile device 104 and on the RBJIT 128, and an MNOuser profile where individual access rights (read/write) may be set.

To aid configuration, there may be either predetermined or user-definedgroupings for fields where sets of fields may be set in bulk. Thegroupings may be labeled for ease of use. For example, all fields forapplications 212 other than the surfacing application 302 may be labeled“Behavioral Fields” and may all be set to readable or not-readable witha single gesture all at once.

For fields of data that are subject to regulation, the RBJIT 128 maystore in the DoD data store 310, or other storage, identities of thosefields such that the mobile device surfacing application 302 and usageand behavior application 304 will be configured to prevent changingaccess rights to those fields. For example, social security and creditcard information may be locked to unreadable to prevent accidentalexposure of those regulated fields.

There are numerous mobile apps of every kind. Those that survive longenough to be worthy of improvement are updated at some point. Commonly,users such as the user 102 are notified that an update is available orbecome aware of an available update by the user or app querying, forexample, an application server, an update server, or other server.However, a percentage of users do not obtain the updates as frequentlyas they are released. For example, if x % (x<100) of users update anapp, and x % install a subsequent update to the app, only x²/100 willhave installed both updates. After a third update, only x³/10⁴ will beupdated. In time, certain apps may lack substantial and potentiallycritical updates to security, bug fixes, and the like.

In general, a mobile client such as the mobile device 104 has aconfiguration file associated with one or more apps. The configurationfile shows the version and a manifest associated with each of the apps.Updating as described herein may result in one app or multiple appsbeing updated (versioned). A configuration file may also be updated,with or without a corresponding app update. In some embodimentsdescribed herein, a “push” architecture is deployed, wherein the EITserver 126 or other server (such as an app server or update server)“pushes” an update to mobile clients such as the mobile device 104. A“pull” architecture, wherein the mobile client reaches out to requestand download the update, is also contemplated.

In keeping with this, from time to time, updates may become availablefor the surfacing application 302 and the usage and behavior application304. These applications may have updates deployed in sync withcorresponding updates to the server side RBJIT 128. In other instances,the surfacing application 302 or the usage and behavior application 304may be deprecated. To limit the operation of these applications afterdeprecation, an application kill switch may be employed as is discussedin further detail elsewhere.

In order to perform in-sync updates, the MNO may employ a remote forcedupdate technique. Specifically, the surfacing application 302, the usageand behavior collection application 304, and the RBJIT 128 (andconstituent software components) have a versioning file. Upon revisingor updating the RBJIT platform and applications, the updated surfacingapplication 302 and collection application 304 are staged (e.g., on thecore network 108) for updating the corresponding versions on the mobiledevice 104. The core network 108 may provide the staging function inorder to assist with software updates, as will be discussed in furtherdetail below. The staging function may be hosted on the EIT server 126itself, or the staging function may be provided on another server or itsown separate server (e.g. a staging server).

Before downloading the update from the staging location, the RBJIT 128may transmit a notification to the mobile device 104 (e.g., via a userinterface module, to a view of an application that serves multimediacontent, or via any mode that may be preset or selected by the user 102)to disable user input to the surfacing application 302 and the usage andbehavior collection application 304. In this regard, the RBJIT 128 maycheck the applications before download to ensure that they are notrunning at time of update. In certain instances, to-be-updatedapplications are access-privileged, or even prevented from deleting orupdating. In such a case, a copy may be made and the updated applicationdownloaded and installed alongside the now-deprecated app, withappropriate changes to the configuration file.

In some embodiments, the forced-update check is stored in a trustedexecution environment (TEE). A TEE includes memory in which is storedthe software that starts up first on device boot. The TEE is set up bythe OEM or carrier and thus is only accessible by the OEM or carrier. Bythis provision, malware masquerading as a legitimate update is preventedfrom being installed as part of a forced update from a compromisedserver.

At the mobile device 104, updating may be integrated with the mobile APIto request the API 306 to identify the latest application version forthe relevant application, and compare the same with the version of theapplication currently on the mobile device 104. The user interface 204of the mobile device 104 may have a forced update pop-up, for example inthe form of a call to action button, triggered by a notificationreceived from the RBJIT 128 or from another server (such as an updateserver), to obtain the updated application from an app store such as theGoogle Play Store™. In some embodiments, the application may prevent theuser 102 from using the surfacing application 302 or the usage andbehavior collection application 304 as the case may be, until the latestversion of the application is installed. In some embodiments, thesurfacing application 302 and/or the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304 may check for a forced update upon application launchand/or upon going from background to foreground. Going from backgroundto foreground, in some instances, may occur when the surfacingapplication 302 and/or the usage and behavior collection application 304are brought into focus on the mobile device 104 by the user 102 afterbeing in a launched but minimized state. Checking for a forced update insuch instances may prevent a minimized, background, or otherwise dormantversion of application 302 and 304 on mobile device 104 from missingupdates when accessed by the user 102.

The surfacing application 302 and the usage and behavior collectionapplication 304, alternatively or additionally, may be pulled frominstallation, i.e., uninstalled. The old surfacing application 302 andusage and behavior collection application 304 as currently installed onthe mobile device 104 may receive a notification from the RBJIT 128 withthe new version. A comparison of the application versions may thentrigger a forced update from the staging locations.

The staging function may be hosted by the EIT server 126 or it may beprovided on its own separate server. In some embodiments, the stagingfunction provides a dedicated resource for receiving software updatesand transmitting them to each of the one or more mobile devices 104without disturbing the RBJIT 128. For example, once a software update isready, the RBJIT 128 may push the software update onto the stagingfunction and notifies the one or more mobile devices 104 that the updateis available. The staging function may store the software update on oneor more digital staging locations. Upon receiving the notification, theone or more mobile devices 104 then access the staging function in orderto download the update. In this way, each of the mobile devices 104 mayreceive the software update without occupying the RBJIT 128. Since thestaging function manages distribution of all software updates, the RBJIT128 may dedicate more of its resources to processing multimedia content.

Over time, applications become deprecated, or replaced by a differentapplication, or become abandoned. To eliminate reliance in such cases,the RBJIT 128 may have a so-called “kill switch” function. A kill switchin one sense can be considered a form of forced update, in that it shutsoff an application's functionality.

In some embodiments, the MNO may send a software notification to one ormore user devices 104. The notification, for example, might concerndeprecation of the surfacing application 302 or the usage and behaviorcollection application 304, although no limitation is intended. Themessage may be a modal message. The mobile device 104 receiving thenotification may display a message to the user 102 informing of thedeprecation. Upon acknowledgment, the mobile device 104 may thenuninstall the application. Among other things, this permits shuttingdown the RBJIT 128 by the MNO without the risk that users 102 may try toaccess the RBJIT 128 after shut-down.

In some embodiments, the kill switch may be a Boolean field that is readby the surfacing application 302 and/or the usage and behaviorcollection application 304, where a value of “true” indicates that thekill switch is active and a value of “false” indicates that the killswitch is inactive. The kill switch field may be read by the surfacingapplication 302 and/or the usage and behavior collection application 304upon each application launch and/or upon going from background toforeground. Further, similar to the retry and backoff configuration, thekill switch field may be provisioned externally to the surfacingapplication 302 and the usage and behavior collection application 304,either by the mobile device 104 receiving the kill switch value during aversion check, or by a separate message sent from the core network 108to the mobile device 104 with the kill switch value. Alternatively, orin addition to causing application uninstallation, the kill switch fieldmay cause the surfacing application 302 and/or the usage and behaviorcollection application 304 to perform one or more of: terminating anyservices, threads or functions that are not immediately related to thekill switch, clearing all application cache and/or memory, anddisplaying an error message to the user 102. In some embodiments, thekill switch may be integrated with the retry and backoff configurationin order to provide additional traffic control techniques for the RBJIT128. For example, the RBJIT 128 may selectively set the kill switch toactive on one or more mobile devices 104 in situations where the RBJITis overloaded.

In accordance with one or more embodiments described herein, techniquesare provided to implement rules-based just-in-time (RBJIT) multimediacontent streaming in a data-on-demand solution to overcome constraintsto which mobile devices are particularly vulnerable for multimediastreaming, although the techniques, in whole or in part, may beapplicable as well to some stationary user devices, and potentially eventhose having large form factors. In some embodiments, an RBJIT engine(“RBJIT”) may collect from the mobile device information about a user,any groups that the user is associated with, and/or the set of all usersin general. The RBJIT may preferentially select for user display(“surfacing”) by the mobile device multimedia content and contentsuggestions based on this information, limiting payload response tosurface only multimedia content which is required or requested to beshown in the user interface, with the greater likelihood that thesurfaced multimedia content will be of interest to a user beingsubstantially increased. In this way, among other improvements, browsingtime for a user on a mobile device with a limited form factor isreduced, and network bandwidth is conserved by not surfacing multimediacontent that the user ultimately will not view. Furthermore, as theRBJIT collects an increasingly large amount of information, predictionsof user interest in multimedia content will continue to improve.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:receiving user preferences restricting collection of data of a userusing a mobile device related to consumption of multimedia content usingthe mobile device; collecting usage data of the user using the mobiledevice subject to the user preferences; storing the usage data in apersistent first cache on the mobile device; periodically sending thestored usage data from the first cache; receiving a first portion ofmultimedia content; autogenerating a hint for multimedia content topresent via the mobile device; storing the autogenerated hint in thefirst cache; precaching the first portion of the hinted multimediacontent in a second cache on the mobile device, wherein a size of thefirst portion is based at least in part on a speed at which a remainderof the multimedia content other than the first portion may bedownloaded; receiving a selection of the hinted multimedia content;surfacing the first portion of the hinted multimedia content from thesecond cache and initiating a download of the remainder of theparticular multimedia content to the second cache; and sending theautogenerated hint from the first cache.
 2. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: providing, via a user interface,fields that group usage data according to subject, wherein the receivingof the user preferences includes receiving selections of one or more ofthe fields, and wherein usage data grouped in fields for which aselection is not received is not collected in the collecting of usagedata.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:detecting a location of the mobile device; determining that a selecteduser preference is location data; and surfacing, via the user interface,information associated with the location.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the usage data is data of one or more socialmedia groups with which the user is associated.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: applying theuser preferences to the usage data; and managing the sending of theusage data in accordance with the applied user preferences.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user preferencesinclude multimedia content.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim6, further comprising: detecting a location of the mobile device;determining that selected user preferences include multimedia contentand location data; and precaching multimedia content associated with thelocation.
 8. A mobile device comprising: one or more processors; a userinterface; and memory in which are stored computer-executableinstructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving userpreferences restricting collection of data of a user using a mobiledevice related to consumption of multimedia content using the mobiledevice; collecting usage data of the user using the mobile devicesubject to the user preferences; storing the usage data in a persistentfirst cache on the mobile device; periodically sending the stored usagedata from the first cache; receiving a first portion of multimediacontent; autogenerating a hint for multimedia content to present via themobile device; storing the autogenerated hint in the first cache;precaching the first portion of the hinted multimedia content in asecond cache on the mobile device, wherein a size of the first portionis based at least in part on a speed at which a remainder of themultimedia content other than the first portion may be downloaded;receiving a selection of the hinted multimedia content; surfacing thefirst portion of the hinted multimedia content from the second cache andinitiating a download of the remainder of the particular multimediacontent to the second cache; and sending the autogenerated hint from thefirst cache.
 9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: providing, via the user interface, fields that groupusage data according to subject, wherein the receiving of the userpreferences includes receiving selections of one or more of the fields,and wherein usage data grouped in fields for which a selection is notreceived is not collected in the collecting of usage data.
 10. Themobile device of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:detecting a location of the mobile device; determining that a selecteduser preference is location data; and surfacing, via the user interface,information associated with the location.
 11. The mobile device of claim8, wherein the usage data is data of one or more social media groupswith which the user is associated.
 12. The mobile device of claim 8,wherein the operations further comprise: applying the user preferencesto the usage data; and managing the sending of the usage data inaccordance with the applied user preferences.
 13. The mobile device ofclaim 8, wherein the user preferences include multimedia content. 14.The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:detecting a location of the mobile device; determining that selecteduser preferences include multimedia content and location data; andprecaching multimedia content associated with the location.
 15. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, ifexecuted by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors toperform operations comprising: receiving user preferences restrictingcollection of data of a user using a mobile device related toconsumption of multimedia content using the mobile device; collectingusage data of the user using the mobile device subject to the userpreferences; storing the usage data in a persistent first cache on themobile device; periodically sending the stored usage data from the firstcache; receiving a first portion of multimedia content; autogenerating ahint for multimedia content to present via the mobile device; storingthe autogenerated hint in the first cache; precaching the first portionof the hinted multimedia content in a second cache on the mobile device,wherein a size of the first portion is based at least in part on a speedat which a remainder of the multimedia content other than the firstportion may be downloaded; receiving a selection of the hintedmultimedia content; surfacing the first portion of the hinted multimediacontent from the second cache and initiating a download of the remainderof the particular multimedia content to the second cache; and sendingthe autogenerated hint from the first cache.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations furthercomprise: providing, via a user interface, fields that group usage dataaccording to subject, wherein the receiving of the user preferencesincludes receiving selections of one or more of the fields, and whereinusage data grouped in fields for which a selection is not received isnot collected in the collecting of usage data.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations furthercomprise: detecting a location of the mobile device; determining that aselected user preference is location data; and surfacing, via the userinterface, information associated with the location.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the usagedata is data of one or more social media groups with which the user isassociated.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,wherein the user preferences include multimedia content.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein theoperations further comprise: detecting a location of the mobile device;determining that selected user preferences include multimedia contentand location data; and precaching multimedia content associated with thelocation.